Two kinds of cookies in the last week.

On Thursday, I spent my day making the dough for sugar cookies then rolling and cutting them out to get in the freezer until we're ready to make them sometime while the college sibs are home.

But I went ahead and made a few to test out an icing idea that I had.

And on Sunday we got enough snow to keep us home from church, so I spent the afternoon making homemade oreos.

Faux Reos

Yield: 30-40 sandwich cookies.

Very thin and crunchy, with an intensely chocolate, not-too-sweet taste, these dark, almost black cookies look nice when pressed with a cookie stamp. Though you'll never duplicate exactly the look of an oreo, this homemade version comes close to matching the taste and texture of those wonderful cookies.

Cookies:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder*

Filling:

1/2 package unflavored gelatin (1 tsp plus one heaping 1/4 tsp.)**
2 tbsp cold water
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and the butter. Add the salt, egg, water, and vanilla, and beat until very smooth. Beat in the flour and cocoa until well combined; the dough will be very stiff.

Roll the dough into balls about the size of a shooter marble (the big marble. :D ). Place the balls on parchment-lined or lightly greased cookie sheets, and flatten each ball until it's 1/8 of an inch thick, using the bottom of a glass dipped in cocoa powder. You may also use a cookie stamp, for a more realistic faux reo effect. To get a nice crisp cookie, it's important to press them thin; use a ruler on the first one to see how thick an 1/8 inch is. (If you get them too thin, then you run the risk of burning them.) Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator to chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the cookies for 17-18 minutes. It's important to bake them just the right amount of time: too little and they won't crisp properly; too much and they'll scorch. Watch them closely at the end of the baking time, and at the first sign of darkening edges or first whiff of scorching chocolate, remove them from the oven immediately. Remove the cookies from the baking sheets and cool them completely on a wire rack.

To make the filling, soften the gelatin in a cup containing the 2 tbsp of cold water; then place the cup in a larger dish of hot water and leave it there until the gelatin is completely dissolved and the liquid is transparent. Remove the gelatin from the water and let it cool until it's room temperature but hasn't begun to set.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream the shortening then beat in the vanilla and the confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, beating until the mixture is light and creamy. Beat in the gelatin.

Sandwich the cookies, using about 1 1/2 teaspoons for regular faux-reos, more for double stuffed. (You;ll have some filling left over if you fill the cookies moderately.)

*You may use regular cocoa, but Dutch-process will give you a darker, more "chocolaty" cookie.

** Make sure you remember the 1/2 package. I just realized that I did the entire package. It didn't ruin them or anything, but now I understand what was up with my weird filling. :D

These cookies turned out pretty hard for me. Maybe it was just something I did. I know they're supposed to be crunchy, and they are, but they're also fairly hard. They'd go great with coffee or tea, though. :) They're a good dipping cookie, I think.